Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not Review

By Rich Cline

Reminiscent of all-night encounter movies like Before Sunrise or In Search of a Midnight Kiss, this British drama has a terrific blast of honest humour and sharp music to undercut its somewhat sad tone. And like Once, it charms us along the way.

Lonely and drunk in central London, Will (Menzies) contemplates suicide but is distracted when he sees his local barmaid Eve (O'Reilly) being mugged. He rescues her, but it takes a little while for them to let down their outer shells, relax and start talking. When he offers to walk her home, she invites him to a party, but over the course of the night, thoughts of death are never far from his mind. As morning dawns, they seem to be starting some sort of relationship.

The film has a tender, dark tone, focussing on Will's introspective music and internal turmoil. Fortunately, Menzies and O'Reilly it manages to undercut the depressing atmosphere with offhanded, natural performances that are packed with earthy humour. The camera work is warm and fluid, beautifully capturing the empty night-time streets and the colourful people they meet along the way, including a raucous gang of women on a hen night, for whom Will improvises a very funny song.

As day breaks, the tone stays the same, even with busier streets and glary skies. And if the dialog sometimes gets a bit too oblique and clever, it at least reveals layers of character that are continually subvert our expectations. There's a lot of conflicting emotion in these two people. A scene with Eve's grandmother (Jones) is especially moving, but feels almost like an unrelated short film. Although it does develop resonance in a turn of events that seems just a bit overwrought.

The most powerful sequence is a silent rave that says more without a word than any talky dialog could. And it's fascinating to watch the city wake up around them as they continually look at each other in a new light, while never quite escaping their own personal issues. These kind of inventive touches are what marks the film as something worth looking out for, and it makes us want to keep an eye on what the filmmakers do next.